Gold & Silver Market 7-5-2015
Last week was a very mixed one for precious metals with gold and silver down, but some gains in the platinum group. The whole period was overshadowed by the accelerating crisis in Europe, where Greece became the first developed nation to default on an IMF loan and now looks likely to be pushed out of the Euro – possibly as early as this week. That’s caused predictable excitement in the equities markets, with US stocks rising at the prospect of the Euro rising without Greek debt acting as an anchor. Meanwhile European markets slumped in the face of the chaos on their doorstep and China’s key index, the Shanghai Composite, followed them down.
Conventional wisdom says gold should have done well last week, thanks to its traditional value as a safe haven in times of trouble, but that didn’t happen. Instead the spot price started falling when markets opened on Monday and dropped through to Thursday. On Friday it picked up slightly but not enough to recover all its losses; the final price for the week was $1,168.30. At just $5.90 down on the previous Friday that’s far from a disaster, but it’s not a great result either.
Silver’s performance was similar. It lost 6 cents over the period, mostly in the early part of the week, but as that’s a loss of a fraction of a percent it’s not serious. Realistically, given silver’s weak performance recently, it was better than many analysts were expecting. It’s also true that the non-US equities slump should have seen silver rising, but not a lot was gaining value last week.
Moving on to the platinum group the picture is slightly more varied. Platinum itself managed to climb slightly, closing $3 up at $1,083. It’s such a tiny rise that nobody should be getting excited about it, but it is encouraging that what movement there was saw the price going in the right direction for a change. Future prospects are mixed; a stronger Euro would hurt German auto sales, reducing industrial demand for platinum group metals, but rejuvenated US exports might take up the slack.
Palladium also managed to get a few dollars back, ending the week up $6 at $683. Again a very small increase but with luck it means the slide we’ve seen over the past few weeks is bottoming out. Industrial demand is likely to follow the same track as platinum in the near future.
Rhodium, the weakest precious metal for a long time now, bucked the platinum group trend to fall heavily last week. A steep decline on Monday and Tuesday saw it drop to $845 an ounce, $40 down on the Friday before. That’s a loss of close to 5 percent, not as bad as the previous week but still serious. If you’re still holding rhodium it’s time to seriously consider moving out of it, because there’s no sign of a turnaround in the near future.
Overall last week wasn’t too bad. There were some losses, but apart from rhodium nothing major. A lot’s going to ride on what happens with the Euro this week, so keep an eye on the news and be ready to move fast – especially on silver and gold.
About the Author: Clint Stelfox
Clint is the director of marketing at Golden Eagle Coins. Son of Richard Stelfox, co-founder of the company, Clint has been living and breathing coins his entire life. After trading for a Philadelphia Stock Exchange firm for several years Clint returned to give Golden Eagle the online presence it has today. 
